Dense, dry and good-looking headlight covers

[lvjost]

Hi,

I tried 3 times to bond the headlightcovers to my GTR body. 1st we used a special adhesive, then we used a "kind-of-silicone-adhesive", which they use in carglass companys and finally a engineer of porsche classic cars painted the perspex with a special colour for the primer to bond....Everytime the headlight covers slightly and slowly come off again and therefore are not dense and dry...Everytime I drove the car,got into rain and turned on the lights, the inner side of the headlight covers fogged up. Is there anyone out there who made it to fit the lights permanently AND got them dry so they won´t fog up ?

Lutz

[steve_d]

I used the factory recommended black adhesive used for all the other body joints. First the inside edge was primed using the black primer used by windscreen fitters.
Moisture will still get in from the back of the headlight which is why I have fitted computer processor fans to the rear covers to circulate air.

Steve

[tuxman]

i fixed mine by drilling 2 holes in the back of the light cover to let it breath .

[lvjost]

To Steve, Computer Fans??? Does that work ???

To Tuxman, the holes vent it a bit and they serve as drain for water, but in case it is raining and you need lights you have the foggin up again, don´t you ?

[steve_d]

lvjost said:

To Steve, Computer Fans??? Does that work ???

They are the little fans that sit on top of the processor chip. went round to my local PC repair shop and he gave me some second hand ones. They work fine. Wired into the ignition.

Steve

[ultimad]

Steve do you have any photos ?

[davejw]

If you look under the wheelarch of any DB7 you will find an air hose +filter going from a fan to the headlamp lenses.....

Dave.

[steve_d]

Sure I had some pics of the fan build but can't find them.

Just took this one.

The top square you see is a wedge shape cover pointing down so road spray does not go up inside. The fan is mounted (glued) on the inside blowing out. The same design cover is at the bottom covering 3 holes (6mm) which go through the headlight inner mount and come out just above the glue line of the perspex headlight covers. There are similar holes at the top edge of the cover.
Mode. The air goes in the bottom 3 holes up the front of the lights through the top 3 holes into the back cover of the lights. This cover is sealed to the clip so the air is then pulled out by the fan.

Steve

[lvjost]

Hey steve, nice solution....

[luckyp]

Hiya, don't know if you are at this stage yet, but it might be worth checking your tyre/headlamp bowl clearance when the car is on either lock. Mine was interfering slightly at the initial 'high' height it was set at for boarding ferrys etc, but when I dropped it for track daying (coz I'm such a track slag now (cough, cough I found I had real probs.

At the factory I saw a customer's car that the factory had on show, it has the two upper 'lumps' in the cowl cut back and glassed over. I've done this now, but I traced a parabola of the the worst case tyre interference, and moulded to suit with 5mm gap

[usagtrman]

I have a screw in desicant canister on each housing and never get fogging. These are the type of pieces that are screwed into a spark plug hole before an engine(piston aircraft engine that is) is shipped. I have plenty of them and they're easy to change periodically. I'll post a picture if you are interested.

Brad Z

[crafty]

usagtrman said:

I have a screw in desicant canister on each housing and never get fogging. These are the type of pieces that are screwed into a spark plug hole before an engine(piston aircraft engine that is) is shipped. I have plenty of them and they're easy to change periodically. I'll post a picture if you are interested.

Brad Z

Ive seen that on your site and was going to ask where you got it from. It is very humid in Hong Kong and I am expecting the headlights to be a problem on my car when it rains. Its just occurred to me while writing this that you can buy small dehumidifier canisters to put in your wardrobes... I guess that would do it.

[lvjost]

To luckyp:
I´ve already checked the clearance and found out, that the tires grind on/to/?? the back headlight covers. On one side it was already rubbed through. So I cut off a lot of parts of the original headlight covers relaminated and painted them...So at least 2 cm of clearance no matter which angle of turn....So I can eliminate this as source of error...

To Brad:
Sounds very interesting....I´d really like you to post some pics....Do I understand right....you´ve put in some thing that absorbs humidity ? Do they have to be exchanged from time to time ? Where did you place them ?

To crafty:
You are in HongKong ? No problems driving a so capitalistic car in china :-) Have you any pics of the wardrobe dehumidifier ?

[stig]

luckyp said:

At the factory I saw a customer's car that the factory had on show, it has the two upper 'lumps' in the cowl cut back and glassed over. I've done this now, but I traced a parabola of the the worst case tyre interference, and moulded to suit with 5mm gap

This is very common. Not too sure why the factory havne't remade the cowl moulds to take this into account?

My offside cowl 'ground' through in no time. Easily sorted with a bit of f/glass.

[ultimad]

Thanks Steve for the info on your fans - that's some solution !

Does the rubbing of the rear headlight covers happen at standard factory recommended ride height ?

Brad - I would love to see some photos if that's possible.

[steve_d]

ultimad said:

Does the rubbing of the rear headlight covers happen at standard factory recommended ride height ?

Mine does but I don't think the factory have the problem when they build one so it must be something the rest of us are doing (or not doing).

Steve

[m3desmo]

Or could it be that the build manual doesn't have the correct info/procedure for body fitment? Seems too much of a coincidence that lots of builders seem to have the same issue. At the open day, lots of cars seemed to have suffered the problem of chafed/worn through headlight shrouds.

[usagtrman]

lvjost said:

To Brad:
Sounds very interesting....I´d really like you to post some pics....Do I understand right....you´ve put in some thing that absorbs humidity ? Do they have to be exchanged from time to time ? Where did you place them ?

Yes lvjost.....that's what they do. As you can see from the photo's they mount on the bottom of the covers, screw in and out just like a spark plug and are easily replaceable.

crafty said:

Ive seen that on your site and was going to ask where you got it from. It is very humid in Hong Kong and I am expecting the headlights to be a problem on my car when it rains. Its just occurred to me while writing this that you can buy small dehumidifier canisters to put in your wardrobes... I guess that would do it.

Grant.....I can get as many of these as you would like. The screw in design makes them easy to exchange.....although I've yet to change mine.



Brad Z

[steve_d]

m3desmo said:

Or could it be that the build manual doesn't have the correct info/procedure for body fitment? Seems too much of a coincidence that lots of builders seem to have the same issue. At the open day, lots of cars seemed to have suffered the problem of chafed/worn through headlight shrouds.

The fore/aft position of the body has got to be the root cause and seemed to be a little vague when I did mine. I thought at the time that if the issue was to get the side pod to clear both front and rear wheels then the answer would be a factory supplied cardboard template. The back edge of the template would sit in the curved shape of the pod front and the front of the template would drop over the top ball joint. Spot on alignment.

Steve

[luckyp]

My body is set forward aft by the overhang on the cockpit to chassis rails. The instructions give a dimension for this which in turn sets side pods and front clip. I have a 2mm overlap, think the factory say 4mm??? Anyone know different?

Pete